Wiki
Clear explanations of key terms around e-commerce, software development and artificial intelligence.
- A/B testAn A/B test compares two variants and measures which converts better. This allows you to replace gut feeling in the online shop with reliable data.
- Above the FoldAbove the fold is the area of a website that visitors see without scrolling. It decides in fractions of a second whether to stay or jump off.
- AdWordsAdWords is the old name for Google Ads. You use the auction system to place paid search adverts that reach users at the moment they intend to buy.
- Agentic CommerceAgentic Commerce bezeichnet Onlinehandel, bei dem KI-Agenten im Auftrag von Menschen eigenständig Produkte suchen, vergleichen und kaufen — über offene Protokolle wie ACP und AP2.
- AI expertiseAI competence is the ability to use AI systems competently and realistically assess their opportunities, risks and potential damage - mandatory since 2025 under Article 4 of the EU AI Act.
- AI OverviewsAI Overviews sind Googles KI-generierte Antwortblöcke über der Trefferliste. Sie verschieben SEO: Sichtbarkeit heißt zunehmend, in der KI-Antwort zitiert zu werden.
- Anchor TagThe anchor tag is the HTML element <a> - the building block that creates links. How link text, rel attribute and internal linking determine SEO and accessibility.
- Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO)The optimisation of content and data so that it appears as a source in direct responses from answer engines such as ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews or Featured Snippets.
- BacklinkA backlink is a link from another website to your site. It is a recommendation for search engines and is still one of the most important ranking factors today.
- BuzzBuzz is organic talk about a brand, the most credible and most favourable form of advertising. How buzz marketing and word-of-mouth arise, how you measure them and why you can trigger buzz, but not force it.
- Call-to-action (CTA)The call-to-action is the point at which a visit turns into a purchase. What makes a strong CTA, how to test it and what mistakes cost conversion.
- Composable CommerceAn e-commerce architecture approach in which the platform is composed of interchangeable best-of-breed building blocks that are connected via APIs.
- Conversion rate optimisation (CRO)Conversion rate optimisation (CRO) is the data-driven, ongoing process of increasing the proportion of website visitors who perform a desired action - such as a purchase, registration or enquiry.
- Core Web VitalsCore Web Vitals are a set of Google metrics that measure the user experience of a website: how fast it loads (LCP), how responsive it is (INP) and how stable its layout remains (CLS).
- ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning)Centralised business software that bundles core processes such as merchandise management, purchasing, finance and production in one system.
- Fine-TuningFine-tuning refers to the targeted retraining of an already pre-trained AI model with its own specialised data - to make it more precise for a specific task, tone of voice or domain.
- Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO)Optimising content so that generative AI systems cite it as a source and incorporate it into their answers.
- Google AI ModeThe dialogue-oriented, AI-supported version of Google search that generates answers directly on the results page.
- GPTBotGPTBot is OpenAI's web crawler that captures publicly accessible websites to collect training data for the GPT models. Operators control access via robots.txt - or block it unintentionally via firewall and WAF.
- Headless CommerceAn e-commerce approach in which the front end (the storefront) is decoupled from the commerce back end and connected via APIs.
- llms.txtA proposed Markdown index at the domain root that tells language models which website content should be processed in machine-readable form.
- MACH architectureMACH stands for microservices, API-first, cloud-native and headless - four architectural principles that together form the technical basis for composable commerce: flexible, interchangeable and independently scalable.
- MicroservicesMicroservices are an architectural style in which an application consists of many small, compartmentalised and independently deployable services - instead of a single large monolith.
- Minimum Viable Product (MVP)The simplest functional version of a product that is sufficient to test the main assumption with real users.
- OmnichannelOmnichannel verbindet alle Verkaufs- und Kommunikationskanäle eines Händlers über eine gemeinsame Datenbasis zu einem nahtlosen Kundenerlebnis — vom Onlineshop über die App bis zur Filiale.
- Product Information Management (PIM)Product Information Management (PIM) refers to the centralised maintenance, enrichment and distribution of all product information - from descriptions and technical data to images - as a "single source of truth" for all sales channels.
- Progressive Web App (PWA)A progressive web app (PWA) is a website that behaves like a native app thanks to modern web technologies - installable, offline-capable and with push notifications, but without an app store.
- Prompt EngineeringPrompt Engineering ist die Praxis, Eingaben für KI-Sprachmodelle so zu formulieren, dass sie zuverlässig brauchbare Ergebnisse liefern — von Few-Shot bis Chain-of-Thought.
- Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG)Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) verbindet ein Sprachmodell mit einer externen Wissensquelle, um Antworten auf aktuelle, belegbare Fakten zu stützen und Halluzinationen zu reduzieren.
- Schema Markup (Structured Data)Schema markup is a standardised vocabulary (schema.org) that is used to mark up website content in a machine-readable way - so that search engines and AI systems understand that a product, a price, a rating or an FAQ is available, for example.
- Server-side rendering (SSR)Server-side rendering (SSR) generates the finished HTML of a page on the server before it is sent to the browser. For search engine and AI crawlers that do not execute JavaScript, this is often the prerequisite for seeing the content at all.
- SpecificationsIn accordance with DIN 69901-5, the specification sheet describes the realisation specifications drawn up by the contractor - how and with what.
- SpecificationsIn accordance with DIN 69901-5, the specification sheet describes the requirements specified by the client for a project - the what and what for.
- Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)The total costs of a system over its entire life cycle - not only the purchase price, but also operation, maintenance and follow-up costs.
- Vendor lock-inVendor lock-in describes the economic and technical dependency on a single provider, which makes switching expensive and time-consuming. How it arises and how you can limit it pragmatically.
- Vibe CodingVibe coding refers to the creation of software by describing the goal to an AI in natural language and adopting the generated code largely unchecked. Fast for prototypes, risky for production systems.